§ 2.35. Personnel Records and General Personnel Files.

A.

City Manager or designee shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of the following records:

B.

Personnel Records. Personnel records are those documents which reflect an individual's status during the period of employment as follows:

1.

Central Personnel File. The central personnel file is the official personnel record for an individual employee and includes, but is not limited to, employment applications, prior employment, work performance, disciplinary actions, documentation of other verbal reprimands, and personnel action forms.

2.

Tax and Benefit Records. These documents are to be maintained separate from the Personnel Files. Due to the protected class and personal data they contain it is not relevant to the person's position and how they perform their job.

3.

Departmental Personnel File. A department head or supervisor is discouraged from establishing and maintaining an "unofficial personnel file" for individual employees for use by supervisors where documents should otherwise be in the Central Personnel File.

C.

Access to Personnel Files.

1.

Pursuant to Alaska Statute § 23.10.430, an employer must permit an employee or former employee to inspect and make copies of the employee's personnel file, as well as inspect other personnel information concerning the employee that is maintained by the employer, during regular business hours. The employer may require an employee or former employee who requests copies of materials to pay the reasonable cost of duplication.

For purposes of the law, employee means any person employed by an employer. The term employer for the purposes of this policy is the City of Kotzebue.

2.

A personnel file may be inspected by the employee's department head, City Manager, City Attorney, and any other person with a written authorization from City Manager or its designee.

3.

No document shall be removed from a personnel file without prior written approval from city attorney or City Manager and notice to the employee.

4.

To the extent required by federal law, medical information regarding an employee's medical condition must be kept in a separate medical file and treated as a confidential medical record.

D.

Use of Personnel Files.

1.

A personnel file shall not be used as a private dossier on an employee.

2.

No document that is reasonably or likely to affect a current employee's performance evaluation shall be placed in the employee's personnel file unless the employee has an opportunity to sign that he or she has received a copy of the document; and unless the employee has a reasonable opportunity to comment upon it. The comments shall become part of the personnel file.